Tag: Work

Several people have commented to me that they think I’m smart. While I appreciate that compliment, I assure you, I wasn’t born smart. Frankly, I was an idiot most of my youth. To be entirely honest, I was a High School dropout!

Here’s my opinion on smarts, for what it’s worth:

Unless you have some mental disability that dramatically reduces your capacity to learn, YOU are in control of how smart you become. Nobody is born smart! Our level of intelligence is directly proportional to our level of effort expended to obtain knowledge. I’ve even known scores of people, who were born with mental disabilities that limit their capacity to learn, who were very intelligent people because they put in work!

As I said, I was a High School dropout. I also failed 8th and 9th grades. It wasn’t because I didn’t have the capacity to learn – it was because I didn’t have the desire. In 1997, I went back and got my G.E.D., 2 years after I dropped out. In 2002 I started at WVU-P. I had no idea what I wanted to study, but I made a start. I put in the work. I eventually got a degree in Computer and Information Technology and I graduated with honors and a membership in PHI THETA KAPPA. Because I worked at it!

A lot of people also give the excuse that they don’t have the time or money for higher education. BS! I worked 2 jobs, went to college full-time and helped raise a child. If you want it bad enough, you will work for it! No money? Most colleges offer financial aid. There’s also online colleges, too. Those are an amazing resource for busy people. I wish I would have had that option when I went to college!

I’m writing this quick post because I see so many people down on themselves because they feel they are dumb or can’t get an education. YES YOU CAN! I’m not going to say it is easy. It’s not! However, pretty much everything I’ve found to be worth having in life requires effort!

Stop making excuses! Stop putting yourself down! If you want to become a well educated person, do something about it! If you don’t know where to start, contact your local community college and setup an appointment with a counselor. YOU are the only person who controls how smart you can be.

Now, as a caveat to this, I’d also like to say you don’t have to go to college to be smart, but it does help! You can learn something new every day. We have this amazing thing now called the Internet – maybe you’ve heard of it. 😉 If people would spend as much time looking up topics they are interested in and learning about them as they do posting funny status updates on Social Media, we’d be in a world where a lot more people were educated.

These are just my opinions. Take them or leave them. I share them to help encourage those who think they can’t, because you can. If my dumb, unmotivated, dropout self can learn, so can you! It just takes time and work. 😉